CFD-DEM modeling of breakage of non-spherical particles in fluidized beds

Abstract

In fluidized beds, particle-particle and particle-wall collisions eventually lead to the breakage of particles. The purpose of this study was to simulate the breakage of non-spherical rod-shaped particles in a pseudo-2D fluidized bed. A coupled computational fluid dynamics and discrete element method was adopted for simulations. Non-spherical particles were created using the multi-sphere method and the quaternion concept, and three breakage scenarios were considered. The effect of inlet gas velocity and size of particles on particles breakage rate and the impact of breakage phenomenon on the bed height were examined. Also, the number of broken particles in each scenario and breakage location were investigated. It was observed that the breakage phenomenon is more severe at the beginning of simulation, and its intensity decreases over time. In addition, the height of the bed increases by passing the time and increasing the number of smaller particles. Furthermore, breakage rate is directly related to the diameter of constituent spheres of particles and fluidization gas velocity, and also most breakages occur near the bed wall.